AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingscourt? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. In Kingscourt, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Kingscourt: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting GL5 5, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the spot.
Don't:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Even a short way up Bowl Hill is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Kingscourt forecourt you are on, the Esso included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its fuel from. A car filled on a drive in Bagpath yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Kingscourt with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's just in your tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the whole issue. No damage comes while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only once the engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in The Butts or the middle of Kingscourt.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Gloucestershire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Kingscourt?
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Gastrells Community Primary School. Someone tips the bottle in at home, just off Glen Park Crescent, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside The King's Head, Kingscourt, the vehicle gets topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars see it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever you are around Kingscourt or the rest of Gloucestershire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Kingscourt: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Rodborough Common, or part way across Kingscourt, your motor may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Kingscourt lies under 5 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Kingscourt to the car park by Rodborough Tabernacle is one matter; heading for Gloucester, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is spotted soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Kingscourt: what it takes
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a street beside St Mary's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Kingscourt, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether your engine has run, since those answers determine the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through since residue will not wash away by itself. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. After that we start it and you head off, whether from a parking space at Stroud or a drive around Kingscourt. The test before we leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Kingscourt and where it is
Kingscourt is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1700 residents. Kingscourt lies near the city of Gloucester, approximately 9.3 miles away, and is also close to nearby places such as Lightpill and Rooksmoor. Kingscourt is characterised by its relatively low elevation of 139 metres above sea level, and its location in the South West region of England. Kingscourt is connected to the wider region, with London being around 91.3 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Kingscourt included
Throughout the GL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Kingscourt reach most of Gloucestershire as well, Lightpill, Rooksmoor and Stanfields included. Phone and ask rather than guess when you're close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
A van that comes to you fits Kingscourt, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Kingscourt: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a single price would not be honest. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Woodchester Roman Villa and Orpheus Mosaic.
With that reason, every call from Kingscourt opens with the same trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still next to your car around Kingscourt?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Gloucestershire, Kingscourt too.